Today we had a choice. I stupidly gave away my freedom of choice. Here's what Meaghan made me do.
3 Rounds
500 Meter Row
30 Overhead Squat @ 55#
21 Pullups (video shows variations)
I had been feeling dizzy for the past day. It kicked in again in round two. Oh well!
This was a deviously designed WOD. The OHS after the row attacked your legs and back. The pullups after the OHS attacked your grip. And the row after the pullups started the whole cycle over again.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Aunt Petunia's Pork with a Side!
I got a great surprise gift for Christmas. My fellow Harry Potter nerd friend, Dave, gave me The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. My first attempt from the cookbook was a failure, but I chalk that up to user error. But after my surprise birthday trip to Hogwarts I was inspired to try again. So for Wednesday Dinner this week I attempted to make a pork loin inspired by Harry's Aunt Petunia. She serves pork to Uncle Vernon's business associates in an ill-fated (Thanks to Dobby) meal in the Chamber of Secrets.
One of the things I like about this cookbook is that Dinah Bucholz gives us some background as to why the dish is related to Harry Potter and some history relating to the main ingredient. For instance, did you know that "Unlike chickens and pheasants, [the pig] is one animal the Romans didn't bring with them to England. Pigs have been around in Europe for millions of years, and since we humans discovered them we've been using them for food?"
This week I actually thought of a side! In advance! I made Martha's Butternut Squash with Brown Butter. It was really good and her times were spot on.
Aunt Petunia's Apple Blossom Glazed Pork Loin
Ingredients
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup Apple Butter (or Apple Sauce)
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
2 lbs Pork Loin
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine the water, honey and apple butter and stir to blend. This may take longer than you'd expect, but don't give up! It will eventually blend together.
2. Add the crushed red peppers and dried cranberries. Bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. It's gonna smell really sweet. Don't worry.
3. Pour half of the fruit sauce over the pork loin and place it in the preheated (325) oven. Bake the pork for 30 minutes.
4. Pour 1/4 of the remaining sauce over the pork and continue cooking 10 minutes or until the internal temperature registers 150 degrees.
5. Rest the pork loin for 15 minutes before slicing. Drizzle sauce over sliced pork and serve!
Voila! Enjoy the meal!
One of the things I like about this cookbook is that Dinah Bucholz gives us some background as to why the dish is related to Harry Potter and some history relating to the main ingredient. For instance, did you know that "Unlike chickens and pheasants, [the pig] is one animal the Romans didn't bring with them to England. Pigs have been around in Europe for millions of years, and since we humans discovered them we've been using them for food?"
This week I actually thought of a side! In advance! I made Martha's Butternut Squash with Brown Butter. It was really good and her times were spot on.
Aunt Petunia's Apple Blossom Glazed Pork Loin
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup Apple Butter (or Apple Sauce)
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
2 lbs Pork Loin
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine the water, honey and apple butter and stir to blend. This may take longer than you'd expect, but don't give up! It will eventually blend together.
2. Add the crushed red peppers and dried cranberries. Bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. It's gonna smell really sweet. Don't worry.
3. Pour half of the fruit sauce over the pork loin and place it in the preheated (325) oven. Bake the pork for 30 minutes.
4. Pour 1/4 of the remaining sauce over the pork and continue cooking 10 minutes or until the internal temperature registers 150 degrees.
5. Rest the pork loin for 15 minutes before slicing. Drizzle sauce over sliced pork and serve!
Butternut Squash with Brown Butter
Ingredients
2 Tbs Unsalted Butter
1 Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth
1/4 Cup Water
1 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
Directions
1. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown.
2. Add squash; saute, stirring occasionally until golden brown and tender when pierced with a fork, about 16 minutes.
3. Add chicken broth, water and brown sugar.
4. Cook until liquid has evaporated and squash is nicely caramelized, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
Voila! Enjoy the meal!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wingardium Leviosa!
Sometime during December Eric asked me if I could take January 17th and 18th off. I could. That's all the info I got, that and that I shouldn't schedule a birthday outing for the Saturday before because we had an "early appointment" on Sunday. About a week before said Sunday he started telling me the weather was looking good for my days off! I knew we were going somewhere! On Saturday he told me to pack for temperatures with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s, that we'd be walking a lot, and that it might rain.
When we got to the airport I let him check us in. I didn't look at my ticket when we went through security. I tried to keep my ears plugged as they were making announcements. During the last announcement I jumped the gun and unplugged them too early. That's when I found out where we were going. Where were we going, you ask? To Orlando!
OK, so if you aren't a Disney fan and don't have kids, you're thinking ummm, OK. What are we going to Orlando for? Then something magical happened. You remember the newest attraction in Orlando. It's magical alright. We were off to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! You know that commercial where the parents tell the kids they're going to Disney World that day? That was me. I was pretty excited.
When we got to Florida we spent some time shopping and took advantage of the sunny warmth and spent some time by the pool. On Monday we spent a VERY rainy day at Wizarding World and went back for more on Tuesday. What an awesome birthday present!
When we got to the airport I let him check us in. I didn't look at my ticket when we went through security. I tried to keep my ears plugged as they were making announcements. During the last announcement I jumped the gun and unplugged them too early. That's when I found out where we were going. Where were we going, you ask? To Orlando!
OK, so if you aren't a Disney fan and don't have kids, you're thinking ummm, OK. What are we going to Orlando for? Then something magical happened. You remember the newest attraction in Orlando. It's magical alright. We were off to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! You know that commercial where the parents tell the kids they're going to Disney World that day? That was me. I was pretty excited.
When we got to Florida we spent some time shopping and took advantage of the sunny warmth and spent some time by the pool. On Monday we spent a VERY rainy day at Wizarding World and went back for more on Tuesday. What an awesome birthday present!
Prepared for the rain.
Entering Hogsmeade on an authentically English weather type day! Please respect the spell limits!
Outside Dumbledore's Office.
Frozen butterbeer is amazing.
Ollivander's
I mean, I was already soaked. Why not?
My hair after a day of being braided under a hood in the rain.
Butterbeer stach numero dos. And Buckbeak and I.
Eric and I at Hagrid's Hut.
Mmmmm mmmm. Butterbeer.
I'm at Hogwarts!
He is the Champion, my friends...
Handstands at Hogwarts!
Eric and I in front of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry1
Ooops, the Weasly's car crashed.
Hogsmeade Station. Please note butterbeer number three.
Handstand at Hogsmeade Station.
01/25/2011 WOD
I was half looking forward to/half dreading this one. It turns out it was pretty fun, even if my hands hurt a little the next day.
7 Rounds
4 Handstand Pushups (I used two abmats as a target)
5 Squat Cleans @ 95#
6 Chest to Bar Pullups
7 Kettlebell Swings @ 55# (heavier than normal)
In order to do this WOD as perscribed (which I didn't really do since I used the abmats...), you had to perform each of these sets unbroken. That means you can't come down from your handstands, can't put your bar down in the squat cleans, can't come off the bar for the pullups and can't put the bell down during your swings).
For me this meant resting longer than I'd like to before the pullups, but I did it! The handstand pushups felt kind of like a rest. The fifth squat clean started feeling heavy about 3 or 4 rounds through. I had to rest before the pullups until I was sure I could do them all without coming off of the bar. This got more important as the rounds went on. I wasn't fast, so I really, really wanted to go unbroken. The swings felt fine. 7 at that weight isn't too bad.
All in all, not bad!
7 Rounds
4 Handstand Pushups (I used two abmats as a target)
5 Squat Cleans @ 95#
6 Chest to Bar Pullups
7 Kettlebell Swings @ 55# (heavier than normal)
In order to do this WOD as perscribed (which I didn't really do since I used the abmats...), you had to perform each of these sets unbroken. That means you can't come down from your handstands, can't put your bar down in the squat cleans, can't come off the bar for the pullups and can't put the bell down during your swings).
For me this meant resting longer than I'd like to before the pullups, but I did it! The handstand pushups felt kind of like a rest. The fifth squat clean started feeling heavy about 3 or 4 rounds through. I had to rest before the pullups until I was sure I could do them all without coming off of the bar. This got more important as the rounds went on. I wasn't fast, so I really, really wanted to go unbroken. The swings felt fine. 7 at that weight isn't too bad.
All in all, not bad!
Friday, January 7, 2011
01/06/11 WOD
I took one look at this WOD and knew it wasn't going to be fun. Generally I like chippers, I like being done with one movement and moving on to another. But generally if the number of reps in a chipper changes, it usually goes down. I prefer it when it goes down. Mentally it makes things easier when the reps go down. Here's what we did:
01/06/11 WOD
10 Thrusters @ 95#
25 Pull Ups
40 Kettlebell Swings @ 55#
50 Ring Dips (used a small band to scale)
60 Box Jumps (I do the jump up, jump down variety)
75 Back Extensions
100 Double Unders (the rope passes under the feet twice for each jump)
Time - 23:30ish
01/06/11 WOD
10 Thrusters @ 95#
25 Pull Ups
40 Kettlebell Swings @ 55#
50 Ring Dips (used a small band to scale)
60 Box Jumps (I do the jump up, jump down variety)
75 Back Extensions
100 Double Unders (the rope passes under the feet twice for each jump)
Time - 23:30ish
- Starting with the heavy thrusters wasn't so bad. Even though I started the WOD already feeling tired, the heavy thrusters really weren't so bad. I did those straight through with no problem.
- The pull ups weren't awful. My abs
wereare still hurting from Monday and I felt them in the pull ups. The kettlebell swings were fine, I mean they were heavier than usual, but they really weren't too bad aside from forearms starting to fatigue from pull ups followed by kettlebells. I wasn't quite in the zone yet, so I wasn't really pushing myself (bad, Jaimee. BAD!). - Next came the ring dips. I used a band by holding the band to the ring while doing your dips. I'm just not good at them. It's not like I could go fast enough to gas myself, I just got to a point where I couldn't do more than 3 at a time.
- On to box jumps. I thought I was relatively rested from the ring dips, but then I tried to jump. I was wrong. After the first four movements I couldn't use my arms to help at all. Thanks to Johnny and John to get me actually moving through the box jumps and make me stop the bad double bounce habit I picked up while we were on the mats.
- Back Extensions weren't so bad aside from the sheer number of them and the fact that I was dripping sweat all over the floor.
- Or so I thought until I tried to stand up to do double unders. My first few were at travesty as my back and hamstrings adjusted to being upright again and being used in a different way.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
11/04/11 WOD
Remember how yesterday I was all "I'm totally not sore from yesterday's WOD!" Oh how much things can change in the space of a few hours. This workout made me feel every one of those GHD sit ups (and toes to bar) from yesterday. I now know that I use my abs more than I thought on C2B pull ups. Like, a lot more.
01/01/11 WOD
5 Rounds
8 Push Press @ 95#
16 Lateral Burpees
8 Chest to Bar Pull Ups (Your chest below the collar bone makes contact with the bar)
I kinda sounded like this guy when I was doing my pull ups.
So this workout was hard. It was really rough. I am usually pretty good at overhead movements but there were a few rounds where I had to put the bar down. The lateral burpees were just a complete disaster. Jumping over the bar (which was the barrier we were to jump sideways over for the jumping portion of the burpee) slowly became just getting over the bar however possible. My chest to bar pull ups were pretty solid. A lot of effort comes from most of the body to make the pull ups solid, including my abs. I felt my abs doing their portion of the work. I was able to keep a steady connection of the pull ups and connected with the bar every time so I was pleased.
I completed the WOD in something like 18:35.
Coach Johnny Mac has me considering a new scaling method called relative scaling. I want to do it for my future performance, but it would involve scaling down a lot of the WODs to increase my power output and speed. I know I need this, but a part of me is prideful enough to want to have that RX next to my name, even though I know it's an arbitrary number. More detail is on Johnny's blog "Running as a Skill." More from me as I consider if this is right for me.
01/01/11 WOD
5 Rounds
8 Push Press @ 95#
16 Lateral Burpees
8 Chest to Bar Pull Ups (Your chest below the collar bone makes contact with the bar)
I kinda sounded like this guy when I was doing my pull ups.
So this workout was hard. It was really rough. I am usually pretty good at overhead movements but there were a few rounds where I had to put the bar down. The lateral burpees were just a complete disaster. Jumping over the bar (which was the barrier we were to jump sideways over for the jumping portion of the burpee) slowly became just getting over the bar however possible. My chest to bar pull ups were pretty solid. A lot of effort comes from most of the body to make the pull ups solid, including my abs. I felt my abs doing their portion of the work. I was able to keep a steady connection of the pull ups and connected with the bar every time so I was pleased.
I completed the WOD in something like 18:35.
Coach Johnny Mac has me considering a new scaling method called relative scaling. I want to do it for my future performance, but it would involve scaling down a lot of the WODs to increase my power output and speed. I know I need this, but a part of me is prideful enough to want to have that RX next to my name, even though I know it's an arbitrary number. More detail is on Johnny's blog "Running as a Skill." More from me as I consider if this is right for me.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
01/03/11 WOD
As part of my blogolution I said I would start posting my WODs. Yesterday's was pretty difficult considering I've spent the past two weeks eating junk and not working out.
01/03/11 WOD
A)
AML(?)AP 10 minutes
1 - 5 Ladders of 105# Hang Squat Cleans
You had 10 minutes to do as many ladders as possible. A 1 - 5 ladder means you do one hang squat clean and can put the bar down. Then do two and you can put the bar down, three and put the bar down, etc. Sounds simple, gets pretty rough.
I completed 3 ladders and set three of the fourth.
Cleans are kinda my wheelhouse. I love cleans, even squat cleans. I love that it's technical and I can still make my body figure it out. I love that it's explosive and fast. My back was really starting to get really tight as we headed towards the end of the wod.
B)
50 Toes to Bar (Mine don't look nearly this pretty)
50 GHD sit ups
Can't remember my time.
My grip started to go first on the toes to bar (as in I dropped off the bar at 49!), other than that they felt pretty good. When I have high rep chippers like this I give myself a rep goal to reach each time. So I'll say to myself "OK, get to 12 and you can shake your arms out and chalk up."
Onto GHD sit ups. I don't like to go full range of motion on these because of my back. I go close, but my back doesn't like to hyper extend too far. GHD sit ups are a fun movement, it's fast and aggressive, but you can get dizzy quickly and you need to build reps up so you don't get rhabdo.
This morning I'm a little sore, but not nearly as sore as I expected. I can cough and laugh without pain. My traps are hardly sore at all. Maybe it's because I actually slept last night.
01/03/11 WOD
A)
AML(?)AP 10 minutes
1 - 5 Ladders of 105# Hang Squat Cleans
You had 10 minutes to do as many ladders as possible. A 1 - 5 ladder means you do one hang squat clean and can put the bar down. Then do two and you can put the bar down, three and put the bar down, etc. Sounds simple, gets pretty rough.
I completed 3 ladders and set three of the fourth.
Cleans are kinda my wheelhouse. I love cleans, even squat cleans. I love that it's technical and I can still make my body figure it out. I love that it's explosive and fast. My back was really starting to get really tight as we headed towards the end of the wod.
B)
50 Toes to Bar (Mine don't look nearly this pretty)
50 GHD sit ups
Can't remember my time.
My grip started to go first on the toes to bar (as in I dropped off the bar at 49!), other than that they felt pretty good. When I have high rep chippers like this I give myself a rep goal to reach each time. So I'll say to myself "OK, get to 12 and you can shake your arms out and chalk up."
Onto GHD sit ups. I don't like to go full range of motion on these because of my back. I go close, but my back doesn't like to hyper extend too far. GHD sit ups are a fun movement, it's fast and aggressive, but you can get dizzy quickly and you need to build reps up so you don't get rhabdo.
This morning I'm a little sore, but not nearly as sore as I expected. I can cough and laugh without pain. My traps are hardly sore at all. Maybe it's because I actually slept last night.
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